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James
Augustine Healy, the first Roman Catholic priest of mixed
origin in America, and the first non-white American to
become a Catholic bishop, also received aid and encouragement
from a white father.
Born in Georgia in 1830 to an Irish planter and a slave,
Healy was carried north in 1837 and enrooled in a Qyaker
school in Flushing, Long Island. He graduated from Holy
Cross College in 1849 and was ordained a priest in 1854
at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Returning to America,
healy worked his way up the hierarchy and was named bishop
of Portland, Maine, in February, 1875.
The bishop's father, Michael Morris Healy, also aided
other members of his slave family. ("His trusty woman
Elisa" bore him ten children.) He sent one of the
girls and two additional sons to the Long Island school.
One of the sons, Patrisk Fancis Healy, became a Jesuit
priest and served as president of Georgetown University
from 1873 to 1882. Monsignor Healy is usually called the
"second founder" of Georgetown |
